Rangers manager Ron Washington, center, preaches an aggressive style of play embraced by his players, including shortstop Elvis Andrus.

THE WASHINGTON FILE

Age: 58; born April 29, 1952, in New Orleans

Education: Attended John McDonogh High in New Orleans, where he was a quarterback on the football team in 1969 during the first year of integration at a predominantly white school. Graduated in 1970 and attended Manatee Junior College in Bradenton, Fla.

Playing career: Signed by the Kansas City Royals in 1970. Was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in November 1976. Made his major league debut in 1977, appearing in 10 games as a shortstop for the Dodgers. Played parts of 10 seasons in the majors with the Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros, hitting .261 with 20 home runs in 564 games as an infielder.

Coaching career: Was named first base coach for the Oakland Athletics in 1996. Later was infield and third base coach through 2006. A's third baseman Eric Chavez credited Washington with helping him become a multiple winner of the Gold Glove Award, and Chavez gave Washington his 2003 award.

Managing career: Took over as manager of the Texas Rangers in 2007. He has a 331-317 record and reached the postseason for the first time this season.

"I've been tested twice, just since the playoffs started," Washington says of his random drug tests. "I've been dealing with this (stuff), every week now. … These (expletives) come in here, come watch you. … I've done my punishment. I'd like to be human again."

Today, he says, will be the proudest moment of his 40-year career in professional baseball. He will step out of the visitors dugout at San Francisco's AT&T Park and onto baseball's grandest stage, as he is introduced as manager of the American League champion TexasRangers in Game 1 of the World Series against the Giants.

The Rangers franchise waited 50 years for its first World Series appearance, but Washington, 58, might be an even more unlikely presence in the championship round. In March, a report at SI.com made public his failed drug test — positive for cocaine — in July 2009. Washington says it was the first and only time he tried cocaine.

"That night," Washington says slowly, "I (messed) up. I brought shame to my family. I hurt a lot of people. It was torture."

It was a night that nearly cost him his job. Rangers President and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and general manager Jon Daniels had to decide whether Washington still was capable of leading their team, which includes center fielder Josh Hamilton, a recovering drug addict.

"The challenging part was hearing it, talking over it with Ron and then dealing with it," Daniels says. "The public side was more challenging on Wash than it was for us. We had already made our decision. We never wavered."

Washington says he was hanging out in his hotel room with friends when he tried cocaine. He figured no one would know, until shortly afterward his name randomly came up for a drug test, as required by Major League Baseball. He called league officials and said he knew he was about to test positive. He then broke the news to Daniels and assistants Thad Levin and Don Welke and offered his resignation.

"I was in total shock," Ryan says. "Then I was mad. And then I was disappointed."

Daniels and Ryan discussed Washington's fate for two days, got a report from an MLB drug counselor and decided Washington deserved a second chance.

"I thought I lost everything I ever worked for," Washington says of a career that includes a 10-year stint as a major league infielder. "If not for Daniels and Ryan, I wouldn't be here."

Without Washington, the Rangers will tell you, they wouldn't be here. They wouldn't have beaten the Tampa Bay Rays (who had the best record in the AL) and New York Yankees (the defending World Series champions) to win the pennant. Washington is respected by his players, who love his engaging personality and aggressive style.

"We are a reflection of our manager," Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler says. "We have talent, but we're in the World Series because of that man."

The positive drug test was not the first time Washington faced questions about his job security. During the opening months of the 2007 season, his first season as the Rangers manager, the team lost 44 of its first 70 games. The next year, the Rangers lost 16 of their first 23 games.

"If you believe in someone, you believe in them in good times and bad," Daniels says. "The first two years, we did not provide Ron and his staff a club that could win the division."

Washington, the eighth of 10 children born to Robert (a truck driver) and Fannie (a housewife) in the Desire and St. Bernard housing projects in New Orleans, symbolizes his hometown's resiliency. He and his wife were without their home after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, losing all of their belongings in the flooding. They moved back in two years ago, Washington says, with nothing more than a bedroom set and kitchen table.

"He is what New Orleans is all about," says Chicago Cubs assistant general manager Randy Bush, a former teammate and close friend since 1980. "Just like that city, you get kicked down, you get up. You lose your home in the flood, have all of your memories washed away like he did, but bounce back. I get goose bumps thinking about what he's overcome."

'We're going to pull together'

The Rangers, who won 90 games to win the AL West Division, believe the team came together for this World Series drive on a March morning before the season when Washington stood in front of his players, with tears streaming down his face, and told them about his positive test.

"The mood was kind of weird when we had the meeting, because nobody knew anything," Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson says. "I was sitting there thinking he was going to tell us he has cancer."

Washington told his players he wanted to hear from them and urged them to let him know if they couldn't play for him.

Michael Young, the captain and All-Star third baseman in his 10th year with the club, spoke first.

"We're going to pull together," Young said. "For those of you who don't think you can handle pulling together, you're not a Texas Ranger."

Wilson spoke, saying he believed in Washington.

Hamilton, who missed nearly four years of baseball while struggling with addiction, told the team not to lump Washington with his own troubles. "I was addicted to drugs," he says. "I didn't care who I hurt. He's not an addict. He just made a mistake."

The meeting, the Rangers say, brought them closer. It didn't matter that they were two games over .500 (26-24) entering June. Or that their first three starting pitchers of the season —Scott Feldman, Rich Harden and Matt Harrison — struggled so much they aren't on the playoff roster. Or that AL MVP candidate Hamilton, who was named MVP of the AL Championship Series, and Kinsler missed a combined 88 games because of injuries.

They played the style of baseball Washington desired and became known for their aggressive baserunning and speed — which players and fans celebrate by holding their hands above their heads and wiggling their fingers, symbolizing deer antlers.

The Rangers went from first base to third base on a single 122 times — nearly 40 times more than any other AL playoff club. Five players stole at least 14 bases, the most by a Rangers team in 32 years.

"I knew I could transform a team into playing the game the way I envisioned," Washington says. "I'm a fundamentalist. Just respect the game. We made them believe."

There were stumbling blocks. In 2007, All-Star first baseman Mark Teixeira and Washington harshly disagreed on philosophy. Washington wanted him to be a more patient hitter. Teixeira refused and later was traded to the Atlanta Braves.

And Washington rode young Elvis Andrus hard, telling him he was wasting his talent and that he could be the game's best shortstop. This season, Andrus hit .265 with 35 RBI and 32 steals.

"Some of the critics came at him hard, right away. But Wash, he's a survivor," Daniels says. "People have been doubting him his whole life. He wasn't supposed to get a professional contract … get to the big leagues … be a big-league coach. He wasn't supposed to get a manager's job. You better be careful when you put limits on somebody."

Seven months after publicly admitting drug use, Washington stood on the field in Arlington, thrusting the AL championship trophy in the air.

"This isn't a football state anymore, it's a baseball state," says Mark Sweeney, 25, who along with his brother, Billy, 30, drove three hours from Silver Spring, Texas, to be at the pennant-clinching game, a 6-1 victory against the Yankees. They painted their faces red and blue — the state's and team's colors — and held a "Ron Warshipper" T-shirt.

"We love Washington," Mark Sweeney says. "Everyone can make a mistake. People forgave the Cowboys players when they ran into trouble. We forgave Ron, too."

Says baseball Commissioner Bud Selig: "You have no idea how happy I am to see Washington's success. He doesn't only have a great reputation as a manager, but as a human being. I'm so proud of him. He deserves this."

A proud manager

Washington still hears taunts from visiting fans. Letters in the mail have been positive, even uplifting, and he stores them in a box in his office. He gets a few nasty phone calls, but it was much worse in the early years in Texas, he says, partly because some folks were mad the team had an African-American manager.

"My first couple of years, I used to get a lot of (stuff) on my phone," Washington says.

"When you win, people treat you different. I got that in New York," Washington says of when the Rangers were there last week to play the Yankees. "I was walking along the street, and all of these people of color were coming up to me. They were saying how very proud they are of me."

And when the Rangers won the pennant Friday, Washington told his players he had never been more proud of a team. "Who dat say gonna beat dem Rangers?' " Washington yelled, spinning his own version of the New Orleans Saints' chant.

Washington and his wife of 38 years, Gerry, went to their condo near the ballpark. He was too hyped to sleep, so he watched a three-hour replay of the game. He was watching it a second time when the sun came up.

'I wasn't going to lie'

There are parts of that July 2009 night Washington never wants to relive. He also doesn't want to forget. His counseling sessions are completed.

The irony of it all, he says, is that he always was considered relatively clean-cut. He was the designated driver for his friends. He never tried marijuana, he says, until he played in the minor leagues. He didn't try amphetamines, he says, until he realized everyone around him was doing them.

"I was clean," Washington says. "Yeah, I smoked my cigarettes. I had my occasional beer. I smoked a little weed when I was younger.

"That night, we had a little bit to eat. I had a couple of beers. I could have said, 'No.' It wasn't like they were saying 'Come on, man, take it.' I was in control. You know, you got the devil on one shoulder, and on the other shoulder … ."

They were good friends who feel awful about what happened, Washington says, but he blames only himself.

After his positive drug test became public, Washington says, he was buried in the news media from coast to coast. Critics wondered how the Rangers could allow him to continue managing.

"There were (those) who wanted to beat me down," Washington says. "Here's a black man. He got a managing job.

"I wasn't going to lie about anything. You could probably find someone I did some greenies with. You could find someone in my younger days I smoked weed (with). … But you ain't going to find anybody who says they did (cocaine) with me."

It is this unrestrained honesty that warmed fans to Washington. It's no different, Washington says, when he's second-guessed about strategy.

"I got no problem with you being right," he says. "In this business, it's all about the second-guess. I got brothers and sisters. They all think they can manage, too."

Washington laughs. Life is good again. New Orleans' neighborhoods are filling up. There's new hope and optimism. And Ryan and Daniels say they have told Washington a new contract is coming.

"I'm at peace now," Washington says. "The people who know me, they know what I'm about. They know where my heart and soul is.

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